"What did the traveller you talked to even say exactly?" Lue asked, rethinking the situation again as he tried to remember the conversation more clearly.
"He said there's a visible path without any trees. Like, if we see it, we can- "
A little girl suddenly bumped into them.
"I'm sorry."
She quickly bowed her head and started running away before either of them could properly react.
Lue looked past her.
There were a lot of people ahead of them.
"Lue, look."
Asher pointed toward the large group walking in the distance.
For the first time in a while, there was something that looked like a way forward.
Asher started heading toward them, but Lue immediately caught his arm.
"Something doesn't feel right."
Lue looked around carefully, his eyes moving from the group ahead to the trees surrounding them.
"What?"
Asher turned toward him, confused by the sudden change in his expression.
The little girl had stopped nearby.
She bent down, picked up a flower from the ground, and slowly started walking back toward them.
"Here."
She held the flower out toward Asher.
"Aww, is this for me, little one?"
Asher smiled and reached out for it.
A red lily.
Before his fingers could touch it, Lue suddenly snatched his hand away.
"What, man-"
Asher turned toward him, completely confused.
"This isn't real, Asher. We need to wake up."
Lue was sweating now.
"What are you talking about?"
Asher stared at him, trying to understand what had suddenly happened.
"This is a little too perfect."
Lue looked around again.
"No, no... we need to get out."
"What is perfect about this? We got lost and-"
"Exactly!"
Lue's voice rose.
"When you said you wanted an adventure, we got lost. When we were thinking about animals, a rabbit appeared. When we wanted shelter, we found a cave. No animal attacks, nothing. And now, when you want to go somewhere, there are people already waiting for us to go there."
His breathing became heavier as he spoke, the thoughts that had been quietly bothering him finally spilling out all at once.
"This isn't right. This isn't how it should be."
Lue was beginning to freak out.
"Whoa, whoa, slow down."
Asher raised his hands slightly, trying to calm him.
"Just because we got a little lucky-"
"THIS ISN'T LUCK!"
Lue screamed.
The words echoed through the trees.
Asher immediately went quiet.
"I'm sorry."
He looked down.
Lue's expression changed almost immediately.
"No, no... I didn't mean to-"
He stopped and took a breath, forcing himself to calm down.
"Look, Asher, it isn't just that. I just... I can't explain the rest."
He held out his hand.
"You trust me?"
Asher looked at his hand, then back at Lue.
"I guess..."
"Hold my hand."
Lue kept his hand extended.
"And close your eyes. Only open them when I really call out for you."
Lue closed his own eyes.
"Really-"
Asher's mind suddenly went blank.
The vision was unclear.
Blurred.
There was no shape he could properly make out, no place he could recognize. All he could see were shades of black, scattered across his vision like tiny broken pixels.
Darkness was everywhere.
"Asher."
Lue's voice echoed through Asher's skull.
"What the-"
Asher opened his eyes.
They were back at the market.
The same market they had left yesterday.
"That was all an illusion."
Lue looked at Asher.
"This is where it started... We're back."
"I don't understand."
Asher looked around slowly, his eyes moving from one familiar place to another.
"We left this place yesterday, yet we're still here."
He looked toward the shops.
"And everything is exactly the same... the shop-"
His eyes suddenly widened.
He turned and ran toward the merchant they had gone to for the haircut.
"When-"
Asher stopped in front of him, breathing heavily.
"When did we leave?"
The merchant looked at him with confusion.
Asher was holding his breath.
"What happened?"
The merchant frowned.
"Maybe five minutes ago... Is something wrong, dear?"
Asher just stared at him.
He was done.
After everything they had just experienced, he didn't even know what to say anymore.
"We sure do have no luck," he muttered to himself.
Then he turned back toward the merchant.
"Nothing, sir, but do you know how to get to Syanandurapuram?"
The merchant answered him.
"Have a good day."
Asher left the shop and walked back toward Lue.
"You were right."
He looked at Lue, still trying to make sense of everything.
"But how?"
"Well... it's hard to explain."
Lue looked around the market again.
"I have these dreams. Dreams of people dying, day and night."
He paused.
"But yesterday... I had none."
His expression became more serious.
"And there's something else too. Something I couldn't name or explain."
For a moment, Lue said nothing.
Then his eyes suddenly went cold.
He had spotted someone in the crowd.
A man.
His eyes were glowing red.
"Asher."
Lue's voice became serious.
"We need to leave. Quick."
"The merchant said we have to reach Vizhinjam."
Asher started explaining as they moved, following Lue's pace.
"It's not too far from here, and then we can take a bullock cart and reach Syanandurapuram."
"We need to hurry."
Lue grabbed Asher and started dragging him along.
"Let's go."
They continued walking.
After a few hours, the scenery around them slowly began to change, and eventually the vast city came into view.
"This is it, I guess."
Asher looked ahead.
The city was filled with people.
The streets were crowded with traders and travellers moving in every direction, voices blending together into one constant hum of life. Among them, Lue could spot a few Lana people in the crowd, along with many other traders from different places.
After spending so much time lost in the forest, the sight of so many people felt almost strange.
They went to a nearby stall and sat down, finally allowing themselves to rest.
They ate quietly, giving their tired muscles a chance to recover after hours of walking.
Lue slowly started to breathe more steadily.
The tension inside him was fading, little by little, but the memory of those red eyes still remained.
He could still see them in his mind.
Those eyes.
That unnatural glow and of the man who died by his hands.
He lowered his gaze, trying to push the thought away.
"Is everything alright?"
Asher's voice broke through his thoughts.
There was concern in it now.
Lue opened his eyes.
"I'm fine."
Asher looked at him for a moment longer, as if he wasn't completely convinced, but he didn't press him.
Time passed.
Eventually, night fell over the city.
This place was known for people gathering around campfires at night and telling stories, and as more and more people joined for the evening, Lue and Asher found themselves sitting among them.
The fire burned quietly in front of them, its light moving across the faces of the people gathered around it.
The stories sure were interesting, if only you could understand them.
Asher's face changed with every story, his expressions shifting as he followed along, clearly getting more and more invested in whatever was being said.
Lue, however, couldn't understand most of it.
So he simply watched.
Not the people.
Not the fire.
The sky.
The night stretched endlessly above them, dark and peaceful, almost as if the strange things that had happened earlier belonged to another world entirely.
For a brief moment, Lue simply sat there and let himself breathe.
Then a Lana person among the crowd began to speak.
"Know about the war between the whole Lana Empire... and a single devil child?"
His voice carried across the campfire.
The surrounding conversations slowly faded.
He began.